Verb Your Enthusiasm: How to Master the Art of the Verb and Transform Your Writing
(Kaufman, Particular, £20)
No book about the craft of writing seems complete without a stern chapter on the importance of eschewing adverbs and adjectives - but what to put in their place?
Kaufman has put together an eye-opening guide to the degree of heavy lifting the humble verb can do, and it’s certainly refreshing to be told to use them over certain other types of words. Kaufman even encourages us to invent some new verbs of our own, so long as the meanings are clear. After all, if it was good enough for Shakespeare...
There’s also a fascinating chapter on what cognitive science has revealed about how the brain responds to different verbs, as well as ‘Good Habits’ sections that round off each chapter and provide readers with homework, such as responding to a prompt.
A book that’s as enjoyable as it is informative.
This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. To comment on it, and to read an alternative version, please read this: Compare and Contrast #9
